A Family of Grave Diggers

[Valmond]

2014/08 I'm back in business after some bugs IRL.

I'll soon update the downloader so those who want to can check out the new stuff.

In the meantime, you can always check out my devblog HERE .


Just FYI, I'm closing in on build 6000 (I know that doesn't mean much but version .3 was around 3-4000 IIRC).

Cheers!

Valmond


--------------OLD------------------


IF YOU JUST WANT TO TEST THE GAME : Download Link

Development and other stuff: HERE (my blog)




Old stuff, nice but old stuff:


Hi everybody!

I saw you were looking for new blood and ... I have some ... but I'd keep it in my veins if that's ok 

I discovered Roguelikes say a bit over a year and I have started to develop one myself, it is really in its early beginnings
but if you want to have a look (ESCAPE to quit, cheat: hold down SHIFT to uncover land) it is for windows and you can download it HERE.

You can't really do anything except walking around and butt into some monsters but if you go down the stairs and then go south in the "labyrinth" you will see my "Schrödingers Map generation" (it grows the map when you close in on 'open ends') in action (that's why you might want to use the SHIFT button), comments welcomed!

Otherwise, it's intended to be quite minimalistic, you can have maximum 4 spells/special actions (or less maybe)
and 8 slots in the backpack (uh, or less  ).
I'm also working on some sort of unlocking mechanism but it won't be a classic one,
more about that in another post maybe (must get it together a bit more first).
Anyhow, I'd like it to be Really easy to start playing so the GUI is very important,
I'd love feedback about that (there isn't really something to do yet in the Alpha001 version though )

I'll post updates when I can and so but do feel free to criticize the few things that are in the game!

Valmond

[The Great Hippo]

Upon attemping to run this program, I get an error saying 'MSVCP100.dll' was not found. If it helps, I'm running a pretty old computer (Windows XP!). I might give it a try later on my laptop, which is more up to date.

[Valmond]

Thanks for trying!

I have included, hopefully, all missing .dll files in the .rar 

[The Great Hippo]

I gave it a try on my laptop (which promptly had a melt-down!). It was interesting--one thing I noticed immediately was that monsters could attack across diagonals even though I couldn't (or could I, and I was just unaware of the ability to perform diagonal attacks?). I'd inevitably get attacked by monsters when there was one around the corner.

[Valmond]

Duh, I hope I didn't have anything to do with the meltdown the game shouldn't consume lot of CPU or GPU, well normally anyway 

You can attack diagonally with the mouse, I haven't really figured out how I shall treat diagonals yet,
it seems normal that you can attack a monster (and move) diagonally when you are say outside and far from walls
even if I remove the possibility to attack 'around corners'.
On the other hand, I like the difference that you can't move diagonally around a corner but you can attack...
On another hand yet, I really like it when you can play with keyboard only...

Anyhow that is one of the things I'd like to playtest much more so I guess I just have to make the game a bit more interesting before trying to decide something final

You can also 'move towards a wall' to 'spend a turn', that way you can stay in a tunnel, far from an opening and the monster will move towards you (that way you can have the first hit).

[Valmond]

So I'm back, a couple of thousands of builds later, with my Rouge Like!

It is named A Family of Grave Diggers and now has some more features.

It is really not finished in any kind of way but the work moves along nicely, you can try to get through the first part, if you get to the village it means you have nothing more to do (it Is an Alpha after all!)

Hope you will try it out and don't be shy about spreading the word or even leaving a comment about it!

Download "launcher-auto-updater" HERE

ps. I'm trying to make the game specially playable on laptops, there are things left to do (like making shopping more easy) but I'd like reactions about my diagonal movment/attack feature (click CTRL ingame to see)!

Thanks!

[Valmond]

Oups, maybe you need the Redistributables to play the game?!
Here is the whole game + updater + .dll:s : Download Link

And a link to the MSVC 2010 Redistributables (if Windows complains about missing dll:s), get it HERE)

My blog (where I post about updates and development stuff) HERE (my blog)

[Valmond]

Took some time and fixed Downloader app and game, they now won't need the redistributable dll:s.

Just download NO WAIT READ BELOW the "downloader" here !

AARGH WAIT! It doesn't work as expected :-/ missed some static link to some dll there... it is midnight though so I will have to fix that tomorrow :-/

[Valmond]

I think it is okay now. If anyone wants to try... :-)

[Valmond]

Build 3503 out now! Download the game HERE!

It is an auto-downloader / updater, just launch it anywhere... and please tell if it works OK :p

[soundlust]

I played for about an hour the other day, I think it's a neat concept.

My only problem with replay-ability is, there isn't much customization, I found quite a few items
and the differences between them were such there was always a clear winner.

It might be a personal taste thing though. But I'll keep a look out to see what gets added.

[Valmond]

Hey thanks for testing and sharing (OMG you played for a whole hour?!! Thanks!)!

I definitely understand you, the game lacks a lot of real interesting items and especially, a lot of interesting situations where this or that might come in handy. Or as some gamedesigner would probably have it: the game lacks choices.

Did you play the "3000" build version or the latest one? The 3000 did severely lack interesting items, the 3500 has a bit more, more to come though!

A last question :-) did you use the "CTRL" function, and if, what do you think about it?

[edit] published too fast, clicked post instead of preview...

One of the 'differences' I'm hoping is going to make the bame better and, euh, different from a classic Roguelike is the sort of 'unlocking mechanism', like when you talk to the shopkeeper when you have found the cheese.
Other shopkeepers are planned:
The Alchemist (you must save him in the forbidden forest and get him to town to 'activate him') sells potions
The Smith sells items (weapons, clothes etc)
The Wizards apprentice sells the "Powers"

All of them must be rescued in some predefined way, I haven't decided for the smith but the wizards apprentice will be in the Wizards tower.

Well well, thanks again and see you soon all!

[soundlust]

Okay, I just played for a bit again!
I see there are a few new items and skills. I think it's time for more enemies and floors...Because I think I beat it?

I cleared all the floors down to 4 and there were only 2 stairs down on the floor, the both went to dead ends on floor 5. Not sure if it's just a bad spawn or what. Also, with the passive ablities, poison, hit & do low dmg, life power, and higher dmg when not hurt. Impossible to die.

Edit: ok I had full inventory and didn't pick up the item. But I made it to the village, went into another dungeon, went down a free floors and when I tried to go down again this happened: http://i.imgur.com/fJF2Wjk.png

Stuck there permeanantly it seems.

[Valmond]

Hi again!

Yeah, the map generation isn't perfect yet and you actually hit a sort of dead end ( it should be on depth 4).
For an experienced roguelike player, the game should be fairly simple, and of course, it lacks a lot of monsters :-)
Some drops will probably be less common too, like the "Powers".

Ha, you found like the stairs to one of the old prototype dungeons :p If you want to 'resurrect' the player, open the data.xml file and search for your players name and set the m_iDepth variable to 0. Should do it. Probably :-)

And last but not least, yeah you beat it! Well, you beat the tutorial ;-D Gotta make some more content now ^^

[Valmond]

Hi!

Just updated the first post (TL;DR I'm back in business and closing in on build 6000, soon a test version is coming)

Cheers!

Valmond